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Wonder Man (Simon Williams)
History : You made one mistake, Eric. I'm sure you thought it poetic to use us as your puppets -- but we're AVENGERS. And Avengers will oppose you -- to the bitter end -- and BEYOND. '' : --' Wonder Man''' : Early Life Simon Williams was the younger of two sons born to Sanford Williams (an industrialist who founded the highly successful munitions factory called Williams Innovations). When his older brother Eric Williams declined his father's offer to join the family firm, Simon, the more studious, less athletic of the two, readily accepted. When Sanford Williams died, Simon inherited full control over the business, although he was only 22. Under Simon's inexperienced management, Williams Innovations began to lose its competitive edge in the marketplace to such rapidly growing firms as Stark Industries. Desperately, Simon sought his brother's aid, and the elder Williams agreed to offer his advice. Eric suggested to Simon that he embezzle some money from the company in order to invest in some business enterprises Eric had gotten wealthy from, namely the illicit racketeering run by the criminal Maggia families. Desperate to save his father's business, Simon did as his brother suggested. His company’s board of directors discovered his embezzlement and Maggia connection, and Simon Williams was brought to trial.1 Masters of Evil Found guilty and facing a prison sentence, Williams was released when Amora the Enchantress paid his bail and enchanted the authorities. Baron Zemo had read of Williams' case and, intrigued by the newspapers' assertion that he blamed Tony Stark for his downfall, dispatched the Enchantress to recruit Williams for the Masters of Evil. (Zemo believed Stark to be the employer of his enemy Iron Man; in fact, Stark was himself secretly Iron Man). Disoriented by the upheavals in his life, Simon Williams agreed to accompany the Enchantress to Zemo's South American base.2 Williams agreed to become a test subject for Zemo's "ionic ray" treatment, a process that would endow him with superhuman strength and durability. After undergoing the arduous chemical and radiation treatments, Williams emerged with the attributes he was promised. Zemo then gave him a costume, dubbed him Wonder Man, and outlined his plan to use him to defeat his foes the Avengers.2 To ensure Wonder Man's cooperation, Zemo told him that a side effect of the treatment that gave him his superhuman powers was that it altered his metabolism so that he would die within the week unless he was given regular treatments of an unspecified antidote. Not wishing to die, Wonder Man agreed to Zemo's plan and in a staged battle with the Masters of Evil, he won the confidence of the Avengers.2 When he explained to them that he was dying, the Avengers accepted Wonder Man into their ranks and unsuccessfully tried every means of science known to them to cure him. Soon Wonder Man led the Avengers into an ambush by the Masters of Evil. In the course of the battle, Wonder Man had an attack of conscience and decided that he could not betray the Avengers' kindness to him, even if it cost him his life. Deprived of Zemo's life-prolonging treatment, Wonder Man succumbed to the mysterious side effect of his power acquisition. Telling the Avengers that he was glad that his final act was a noble one, Wonder Man fell still, displaying no vital signs. Although the Avengers assumed that he had died and brought his body back to the United States for identification and burial, Wonder Man had actually gone into a deathlike coma brought on by the still unstable mutagenic changes triggered in his body. Sometime later, Williams' brother Eric, now known as the criminal Grim Reaper, retrieved his younger brother's body. The Reaper wished to use his brother's cryogenically preserved body to bribe the Vision, the android whose artificial brain was cybernetically programmed with the memories and behavior patterns of Simon Williams,3into betraying the Avengers.4 The Grim Reaper tried to convince the Vision that his consciousness could be transferred into Wonder Man's body, giving the Vision a more human form. Later, the Reaper claimed that Wonder Man could not be resurrected and offered to have the Vision's consciousness transferred into Captain America's body instead. The Vision pretended to go along with the Reaper's scheme in order to help the Avengers apprehend him.5 Revival The Grim Reaper managed to escape after the incident, however, and took with him his brother's seemingly lifeless body. Now obsessed with the idea of reviving his brother by any means whatsoever, the Reaper took Wonder Man's body to New Orleans hoping that the local Houngans (voodoo priests) could resuscitate it. Led by the Black Talon, the leader of their voodoo cult, the Houngans used their magics to reanimate Wonder Man, but as a mindless zombie. Frustrated by the imperfect result, the Grim Reaper had the Houngans instruct the semi-living being to accuse the Vision of "stealing" his mind. He then packed the body into a large crate and shipped it to Avengers Mansion. When the crate was opened, Wonder Man indeed did as he was bid, but to no real effect6. The Avengers subdued Wonder Man and followed him to New Orleans to investigate what had happened7. Curiously, as Wonder Man began moving about again and after having been exposed to the powers of the Living Laser, he began shaking off the effects of both the Houngans' magic and Baron Zemo's detrimental radiation treatment. Within a few days, Wonder Man was conscious and fully functional once again, much to his surprise8. The Avengers later examined him and learned that he had simply been in a coma while his body was fully metamorphosed from one of flesh and blood to one of an unspecified superhuman flesh-like substance nourished by ionic energy instead of blood.9 Wonder Man suffered considerable psychological trauma adjusting to the change that had come over him as well as his memories of being "dead." During the initial months of adjustment, he resided at Avengers Mansion as a guest and frequently lent his aid to the team. Despite his vast strength and resistance to injury, Wonder Man dreaded the thought of dying and facing oblivion again, and was often overwhelmed by cowardice in life-threatening situations.1011 Finally, while battling the near-omnipotent Korvac, Wonder Man was able to master his fears long enough to live up to his full potential. However, he still felt twinges of the same irrational fear from time to time, unable to vanquish it completely. He was eventually re-elected to membership in the Avengers, and became close friends with his fellow Avenger the Beast. : The Grim Reaper, learning that his brother was now conscious and no longer zombie-like, stole into Avengers Mansion, subdued the Avengers, and held a mock trial to determine if this Wonder Man truly was his brother. Satisfied that Wonder Man was his brother brought back to full life, the Reaper planned to kill the Vision, whom he saw as an inhuman mockery of his brother. Wonder Man fought his brother to save the Vision and defeated him. The Avengers committed the Grim Reaper to a mental institution but he eventually got free. The Reaper was now convinced that despite the evidence of the trial, Wonder Man could not be his brother for his brother would never lift a hand against him. Thus both the Vision and Wonder Man were mockeries of his brother who must die. The Reaper made another attempt on the two that ended in failure.1314 Leaving the Avengers While living at Avengers Mansion, Simon Williams decided to seek employment in order to give himself something useful to do and so he was not financially dependent upon the Avengers. Having no inclination to go back into a business where he had faced his greatest humiliation, he determined to become an actor, since he felt that during much of his time with the Avengers he was only acting at being a hero. His steadiest work was as a strongman on a children's television show. He eventually quit the job and also terminated his Avengers membership during a major reshuffling of the roster.15Unable to get decent acting work, he accepted a job at Cordco Incorporated as a troubleshooter and security consultant. He only lasted there a day before deciding to move on.16 Heading out to Los Angeles, he decided to exploit his nearly indestructible body by doing stunt work for the movies. He was highly successful at this, and soon began getting acting work as well.17 West Coast Avengers When Hawkeye went to Los Angeles to form the West Coast Avengers, Wonder Man was invited to join the team. Despite certain qualms about living up to the Avengers' standards, he accepted. While helping the team in its struggle to establish its own identity, Wonder Man began to come to terms with himself and his role as a hero. Impressive victories over such foes as Graviton, Ultron, and his brother the Grim Reaper served to bolster his self-esteem, and his stunt work served to remind him just how impervious he was to mortal danger. His turning point came when he went on national television to announce that he was guilty of the embezzlement charge brought against him years ago and that he was sorry about it. Released from the grip of this personal devil of his past, Wonder Man was gratified when the public gave him a vote of confidence for his candid admission. He has also come to regard the Vision as a surrogate "twin brother" due to their psychological similarity. : Simon's confidence continued to increase with each victory. Suffused with ionic energy, he began to feel as if he were immortal, until the explosion of a Kree ion cannon dispersed his body's ionic energy.22 But Wonder Man's mind lingered. His love for Wanda Maximoff, the hex-casting heroine called the Scarlet Witch, tied him to the mortal plane. Her love for Simon enabled Wanda to channel the chaos energies she wields to bring Wonder Man back to life.23 Feeling unworthy of a second chance due to the mistakes of his past, Simon sought to reclaim his dignity and sense of self-worth. To help those overwhelmed by forces beyond their control, he established Second Chances — a non-profit foundation funded by the re-release of his movies and videos, plus countless new projects and endorsements. Finally free of his personal demons, Wonder Man became a confident, capable crime-fighter and staunch member of the Avengers. : Civil War After the Superhuman Registration Act was passed, Simon registered and so became an officially sanctioned S.H.I.E.L.D. agent, tasked with hunting down and capturing unregistered superhumans. He followed an Atlantean agent to a warehouse, finding it to be a stockpile for Atlantean weaponry. Shortly after Simon tried, unsuccessfully, to defend them from an attack by the Green Goblin. Wonder Man was pressured to work for the pro-registration side in the ensuing Civil War drama. In addition to capturing renegade vigilantes and criminals, Wonder Man was instrumental in creating televised messages to educate the public and yet-unregistered superhumans about the specifics of the Registration Act. He was one of the first established heroes assigned to lead the Fifty State Initiative training program for inexperienced hero recruits along with Ms. Marvel and various other former Avengers.26 Iron Man and Ms. Marvel recruited him into the Mighty Avengers, a team of registered superhumans. During his time as one of the Mighty Avengers Simon began a romantic relationship with Ms. Marvel; warning her, however, not to use her position as leader of the Avengers to keep him out of potentially dangerous situations just because of their relationship.27 Simon participated in all of the group's activities, such as opposing the Mole Man's bio-creations, an Ultron-infected Iron Man, and an alien symbiote-mutated New York, arresting Doctor Doom, defeating an attack orchestrated by the Hulk and his Warbound,18 and opposing a full-scale invasion by the Skrulls.25 Dark Reign Following the events of the Secret Invasion, Norman Osborn created a new team of Avengers, effectively retiring Wonder Man. Wonder Man later appeared on television, lamenting his tenure as an Avenger, claiming it was all a waste of time and that using violence to uphold justice has caused nothing but heartache and death. He ended his speech by sadly admitting that having Osborn in charge was exactly what the country deserved. After this, Wonder Man was imprisoned as a member of the new Lethal Legion.2824 Wonder Man appeared alongside his old West Coast Avengers teammates, Ronin, Mockingbird, Tigra and War Machine in battle with a new version of Ultimo.29 After Siege, Simon was the only former Avenger to refuse Steve Rogers' invite to his Avengers, going so far to say "I hope you change your mind or I'll have to change it for you." Simon later attacks the newest Avengers team during their first meeting, doing a great deal of damage to the uppermost floors of Stark Tower and destroying Noh-Varr's prototype time travel device before the Avengers can rally themselves and force him to teleport away.30 After their first mission together, Bucky and Tony find Simon and attempt to convince Simon to rejoin. Still, he adamantly refuses, but is halted in his rant when Tony points out that Simon's body is becoming unstable and "leaking" his ionic energy. This suggests that Simon's current state may be caused by his body's instability, and not any real mental choice.31 The Revengers Disillusioned with the Avengers after their numerous failings, Simon felt the team was the cause of more harm than good. Organizing a group of lesser-known heroes, he informed them of the failings of the Avengers and his own views, convincing them the Avengers had to be stopped.32 Targeting Avengers Mansion, the group waited until Danielle Cage, daughter of New Avengers members Luke Cage and Jessica Jones, had left the mansion. With the entire roster of New Avengers present, Williams felt it was time to attack, with Atlas leading the charge. Overwhelmed, the New Avengers briefly held their own before being overwhelmed by the Revengers. With that team defeated, Williams set his sights on their next target: Avengers Tower... home of the main Avengers team.32 Atlas attacked the Avengers Tower only to get the attention of the team, because they called a press conference at the court, where the Avengers appeared to confront them. After failure at discussing the situation with Wonder Man, Iron Man trapped him in his ionic form in a containment unit. Not willing to fight with too many civilians near, Thor teleported the Revengers to the Citi Field, where they where subdued by both The Avengers and The New Avengers and later imprisoned. : After talking with Beast, warning them, and telling them what he thought, Simon vanished from his containment unit.33 Uncanny Avengers After redeeming himself by helping the Avengers rescue Wasp from the Microverse,34 Simon joined the new Avengers Unity Division, a team with the purpose of unifying mutant and humankind.35 Simon, upon joining the team, revealed that he had taken up being a pacifist because he believed he cannot solve his problems with his fists.36 During a mission with the team involving the Apocalypse Twins, Rogue absorbed the powers of numerous heroes, including Simon. This overload caused Rogue to lose the control over her powers once again, and absorb Simon's essence into her mind, and his powers into her body.37 Simon's consciousness was still within Rogue during the attack by the Red Skull while on the island of Genosha. After the Inversion spell done by Wanda and Doctor Doom, the X-Men and Avengers turned against each other, with both sides prepped for war. Simon's essence and abilities were used by Rogue to help the X-Men.38 After Rogue was returned to normal and rejoined the Unity Division,39 Rogue, Simon, and the Unity Division traveled to Counter-Earth in search of Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch. They were captured by the world's citizenry, and Simon's consciousness, but not his powers, was removed from Rogue by the Master Scientist.40 Simon's current whereabouts and fate are unknown. ::